Simulation shows North Metro Corridor heavy rail commuter cars going through Thornton.

The North Metro commuter rail corridor through Denver, Commerce City and Thornton – the second-costliest project in the RTD FasTracks program after the train to Denver International Airport – is going to public hearings next week on a Draft Environmental Impact Statement that has two major items unresolved.

One is the exact route that the double-tracked heavy-rail train cars will take through Commerce City, in light of the costly and technically challenging path through the busy Sand Creek Junction of the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads under Interstate 270.

After initially rejecting Sand Creek Junction in favor of several overland routes to the west that avoid the freight railroads’ operations, RTD has begun to evaluate sending the North Metro Corridor tracks through Sand Creek partially on an elevated track over the freights, and crossing under I-270 to the west of the freight tracks.

Looking southwest, photo shows Sand Creek Junction at left center. Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight tracks cross each other here while I-270 passes overhead. North Metro commuter trains could pass through here as well.

The alternative will be carried forward into the next level of analysis for the Final Environmental Impact Statement, along with three remaining overland routes, all of which go under I-270 at the O’Brian Canal and have three options for meeting up again with the main alignment on the Union Pacific’s former Boulder Branch track.

The second major unresolved item is the location for the Denver station on the line, planned for the Denver Coliseum area. The South station option is located at the far end of the Coliseum parking lot, where the North Metro Corridor would run next to the BNSF’s tracks. The North station option is at 48th Avenue and Brighton Boulevard, north of the National Western Events Center.

There is also an alternate location for the Commerce City station, but RTD is recommending a site at 72nd Avenue that works with any of the four alternative alignments over Sand Creek. It had also looked a site a short distance south, at 68th Avenue, that could only be used by two of the four potential alignments.

The alternatives for placing the North Metro Corridor tracks through Commerce City are shown on this map.

In addition, RTD agreed to evaluate options presented by Thornton for transit-oriented development to be incorporated into the plan for the 124th Avenue station.

RTD will hold two public hearings on the draft next week – on Wednesday, Dec. 9, in the Adams 12 Conference Center in Thornton at 1500 E. 128th Ave., and Thursday Dec. 10 in Commerce City at Adams City High School, 7200 Quebec Parkway. Both hearings will run from 6 to 8 p.m.

You can view the entire Draft Environmental Impact Statement at the RTD FasTracks site. You can also make a comment using the online form.

View RTD’s video announcement of the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and next week’s public hearings:

The North Metro Corridor has an estimated capital cost of $1.1 billion, making it the second-most expensive rail corridor in all of FasTracks. It is an 18-mile heavy-rail project that runs between Denver Union Station and 162nd Avenue – just north of CO 7 and beyond the E-470 beltway. It would exit Denver on the BNSF Brush Division tracks that go east of the Coliseum and National Western complex and along Riverside Cemetery. Restrictions on use of freight railroad right of way would put the tracks partially into Brighton Boulevard there, requiring the road to be moved up to 30 feet to the east.

North of Sand Creek, the North Metro Corridor meets up with the Union Pacific’s Boulder Branch, a little-used freight corridor that snakes northward generally between York Street and Colorado Boulevard. RTD recently purchased the right-of-way all the way into Boulder.

It would be double-track up to 128th Avenue, and then single-track up to the end of the line.

This corridor had long been planned for heavy-rail commuter trains, but in the study RTD included an option for light rail in all the proposed alignments including along Interstate 25, similar to the T-REX light rail. But they were eliminated principally due to the high cost of land acquisition they required.

The North Metro Corridor would include eight stations in addition to the hub at Union Station – the Coliseum area, Commerce City, 88th Avenue, 104th Avenue, 112th Avenue, 124th Avenue/Eastlake, 144th Avenue and CO 7/162nd Avenue.

Depending on the final alignment chosen through Commerce City, RTD would have to acquire between 85 and 100 acres. The team is working to minimize the amount of land needed. But as it stands now, up to three residential properties would be affected, among a total of 77 to 87 properties. Between 13 and 17 businesses, with 230 total employees, would face relocation.

RTD proposes to operate weekday trains every 15 minutes during rush hours and every half hour outside of that, starting at 4 a.m. and ending at 1:30 a.m.

Map shows the North Metro Corridor alignment.